The Society mourns the loss and pays tribute to a very good man, Alan Barnett. Alan was a pillar of the local community having been both a Councillor and Mayor
in local government. He organized, helped and generally contributed to many local charities. He was a founder member of the MFG&D Society in 1960, resigning
from the Committee as the Society is non-political, to become a local councillor. After his stint in local government he rejoined the Society’s Committee and was
elected Chairman in 1997.

Under the direction of Alan one of the major achievements of the Committee took place in 1993 with the publication of a local directory listing all the local clubs,
associations, organisations, churches, schools, libraries, youth groups, sports clubs, doctors, dentists, restaurants and pubs. The directories were delivered
to all residents of the three villages by the Cubs, Scouts and Guides as well as committee members and other volunteers. It was a huge project compiling all
the information and time consuming.

During WWII, Alan served in the Royal Air and has recorded the following experiences.

There were occasions when the ground crew was given the chance to fly in the Dakota, even sometimes to be able to take over the controls. On one such flight, the
Captain, and to this day I do not remember who this was (we ground crew did not keep logbooks) invited me to take his seat and fly the Dak. This was wonderful.
Just follow that railway line he said, then vanished with the rest of the crew to the back — I think they had a card school going there. I was as happy as a pig, following
the track and admiring the view until the line vanished into a tunnel in a mountainside. Oh dear! Fortunately I did keep to the route, more or less, and eventually the
line reappeared. Super, I carried on following the line. Some time later we reached our destination. At least I thought it was our destination. At least it was an airfield.
We were getting closer and closer, almost on top. What do I do, the pilot was still at the back and no way was I going to attempt a landing. What a relief it was to get
a pat on the shoulder -—“OK I’ll take over now.”

Another time when I had the opportunity to fly as a ‘flying fitter’ and I have no idea now when this was, where or who the crew were, but it was probably the most sticky
experience of my life.
It was very dark outside, black, then the heavens opened up — it poured with rain completely obstructing our view out of the windows. Well, visibility was almost nothing.
We had no landmarks and our navigator was completely lost -I am only a lay man — I don’t know about navigational aids. So there we were — four of us — pilot, co-pilot,
navigator and me — staring out of the windows, desperately looking out for a sign of life in the black void. Our fuel tanks were getting dangerously low, nearly empty. It
was at about this time that I retired to the back, got out my paybook and filled in the ‘will’ bit. Back in the cockpit I joined the others still looking out for landmarks, was
that a light? — a line of lights. I pointed out to the pilot what appeared to be a landing strip. We made for this. Coming in to land both engines came to a halt — out of
fuel, but we made it safely — what a relief.

He was also the Chairman of the “194 Squadron (The Friendly Firm) Association” which was affiliated to the “Burma Star Association